The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for arranging papers especially for aligning edges of papers stacked on a stacker tray so as to staple them for the purpose of various kind of editing operations.
Image forming apparatus such as copying apparatus which is equiped with a paper edge aligning apparatus is known. Such an apparatus for aligning paper edges is used, for example, for the purpose of stapling a group of the papers of copy.
An example of the known apparatus for aligning the copy paper edges is disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 59-78069.
The conventional apparatus comprises a copying apparatus body in which a photoconductor drum and a developing device are disposed. On the photoconductor drum, a visible toner image developed by the developing device is formed. The toner image is transferred to a transfer paper fed from a paper supply portion. After that, the paper on which the toner image is transferred passes through a fixing device and is then discharged through a pair of outlet rollers.
The discharged paper falls due to the gravity onto a support table on which the paper is moved by conveyor rollers toward a stop. In this conveying motion, the paper is biassed to one side of the conveyor route by a paddle wheel which is obliquely disposed with respect to the paper conveying direction.
A leading edge of the paper abuts against the stop so that the paper edge is aligned with the stop. When a predetermined number of papers are stacked on the table, the paper stack is stapled by a stapler. After that, the stop is moved away from the paper stack so that a group of the stapled papers is discharged onto a tray disposed below the support table.
In accordance with the conventional apparatus for aligning the paper edges mentioned above, the apparatus is arranged in such a way that the paper discharged through the outlet rollers falls naturally by the gravity which takes a relatively long time to reach the support table and impedes high speed prosecution of editing operation.
On the other hand, an example of apparatus for arranging papers equipped with means for stapling a bundle of copies is disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 59-82263. The apparatus disclosed in the publication comprises a first conveyor route for conveying a copy paper which is to be discharged without stapling operation and a second conveyor route for conveying a copy paper which is to be stacked and stapled. The paper to be stapled is conveyed in such a way that the paper is turned over after the paper is stapled so that the trailing edge thereof becomes the leading edge thereof and discharged out of the apparatus.
However, in accordance with the prior art structure mentioned above, the group of the stapled copies is conveyed along and around the conveyor rollers which have a relatively small diameter, which causes malfunction of paper conveyor especially when the paper is thick or a large number of papers are stapled together since the paper or the stapled paper group is hard and not easy to be bent according to the roller arrangement. Therefore, the number of papers to be stapled is limited to about twenty five in accordance with the conventional structure mentioned above.